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Idle

Idle, Basic (3-5sec long) due at the start of Class 2. This accounts for 15% of your final mark

Write a short description of your character, 2 paragraphs long. In the first paragraph, Tell who they are, what kind of person they are and what motivates them. In the second paragraph describe how they move and behave. focus on using active adjectives that are clear and concise. This character description will be the starting guide for all of your animation in GAD AFG414.

Example: "Jimbo" Character Description

"Jimbo" is a girthy angry woman who is slightly unhinged. She has a bum leg on her left side that drags a bit when she moves. This makes her even more furious. Her eyes don't quite align and she is always looking for a new target for her ire. She really likes to poke people, stabbing them with her meaty fingers and scowling the whole time.

I sum her up as: Pokey, Limping, and Furious

Get a rig (Morpheus, Norman, your own creation, or any other stable humanoid rig.) and open it in Maya. Using the character description and the principles of good posing (silhouette, line of action, balance etc.) create a base pose for your character. All animations will lead out of and back in to this pose, so choose wisely. Try to pick a pose that looks ready for action because for playable characters, your base pose serves as your anticipation. Use the pose and compare method to create the best possible pose you can.

Once you've created your base pose, start to animate a basic breathing milling cycle 3-5 sec long. Look for places to put "figure 8" shapes in your movements of the hips. Try to build asymmetry in the posing. Remember to exaggerate the movement.

Idle, Extended (8-10 sec long) due at the start of Class 3

Now that you have your basic breathing milling cycle, we're going to add a couple of character gestures. These are basically little moments of acting that help to show who your character is. Maybe they stretch and yawn in boredom. Perhaps they look around, fearful and paranoid. For your character, shuffling their feet might be a natural bit of behavior. Use your character description as a guide and come up with two bits of action that break out of, and merge back into, your basic Idle. Gather reference, either filming yourself or going online for video, to help guide you with posing and timing. Your Extended Idle must be a loop, so make sure your first and last pose are the same. Remember your 12 principles and have fun with this.

A few tips:

Don't keep your feet locked in one place the entire time. Small steps and shuffles can add a lot of life to a character. As long as you get them back to the start position by the end, everything will loop nicely.

The character "gestures" are simple bits of acting that help reveal who your character is. They should be no longer than 4-5 sec each. A brief look around, a shuffling step, a stretch and yawn, or a threatening gesture are all examples of quick little character gestures.

Watch your character balance in your posing. Use the tightrope and the plumb line trick to help assess this.

It's much easier to go broad with your movement and then soften it, than it is to take something small and subtle and make it bigger. Exaggerate!